Seven Live Arcade Games That Deserve Re-Release On Xbox One

The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are not backwards compatible, and that includes the games that appear on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. In the interest of making some if its most popular games available on its new console, Sony is porting some of its best downloadable titles. Games like Flow and Flower are already available on Sony’s new console, and other downloadable games are planned for release on both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

The Xbox One is getting a new version of Minecraft, but otherwise, plans to port old Live Arcade games to the Xbox One do not appear to be in the console’s future. All of the games listed below helped to define the Xbox Live Arcade experience and an excuse to replay them, with or without next-gen enhancements, would be absolutely welcome.

BraidBraid is not an Xbox 360 exclusive, nor is Jonathan Blow committed to Microsoft in any way in terms of exclusivity. Regardless, Braid quickly became a defining game for the Xbox 360’s downloadable service. Most discovered the game on Microsoft’s console, and bringing it to Xbox One would offer an opportunity to for new players to discover it, and give old players a chance to revisit it.

Geometry Wars: Retro EvolvedA brand new Xbox One exclusive Geometry Wars seems more likely than a port, but reliving the original arcade shooter with the Xbox One’s new next-gen particle effects would certainly be a fun, nostalgic experience.

Castle CrashersLike Braid, Castle Crashers is not an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive, but it took developer The Behemoth two years to bring it to PlayStation 3, and another two to bring to PC and Mac players. For the most important years of the game’s life, you could only get it on Xbox 360. It also doesn’t hurt that it continues to be one of Xbox Live Arcade’s best-selling games.

Mr./Ms. ‘Splosion ManDeveloper Twisted Pixel was able to launch a game alongside the Xbox One with Lococycle, but some of its best work was with its two ‘Splosion people games. I’m sure a package including both the Mr. and Ms. games together would find an audience on Xbox One.

LimboPlaydead has been mostly quiet since the release of Limbo on Xbox 360 in 2010. It has ported the game to a few new platforms, including Mac and PC, PlayStation 3, and iOS. What’s one more port to a new console? Maybe Double Eleven, the developer that brought the game to Vita, could handle it.

FezThe futures of Fez, its developer Polytron, and its creator Phil Fish are all pretty vague. The game is coming to PlayStation 4, however, so it will be available on at least one next-gen console. Fish did not enjoy his time working with Microsoft, and was fairly vocal about it, but from the sounds of it, he is no longer personally involved with Fez’s assorted ports. It’s not entirely out of the question to see Fez make an appearance on Xbox One, but it is unlikely.

Shadow ComplexDeveloper Chair is busy with its highly successful Infinity Blade series. It has never stated that it is working on a sequel to Shadow Complex, but it has said that it would like to. In lieu of a sequel, a port of the original game (with updated visuals) would certainly ease the pain of not yet playing a Shadow Complex 2.

For more games from the previous generation that we’d like to see on our next-gen consoles, head here.